1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to conveyors or article orientation devices. More specifically, this invention relates to a two-surface conveyor system for rolling a workpiece supported thereon to a desired orientation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
When working on large, heavy, bulky articles, it is often necessary to change the position of the articles to expose different surfaces for operations to be performed thereon. In order to accomplish this task, the articles are usually picked up or hoisted with a suitable crane or lifting device and rolled or positioned as required. An example of such a situation is in finishing large castings which need to have different surfaces exposed for grinding or cleaning. Hoisting the castings to perform grinding or cleaning is time consuming, expensive and clumsy. In addition, the size of the work station needed to perform this operations must be increased to accommodate specialized hooks, bales and fixtures which may be required for positioning the castings.
Various conveyor systems are known for handling bulk materials or individual articles. In particular, moving belt or roller systems are well known which alter the orientation of identical articles. Conveyor machinery for accomplishing such tasks are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,122,938, issued to Walz, disclosing a conveyor belt system for toppling articles, U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,482 issued to Tomlinson et al depicting machinery for stacking clay tiles, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,944,063 issued to Lederer, illustrating a conveyor and belt assembly for turning over clay pots. The machinery of these prior art patents is specifically designed to accommodate articles which are uniform in shape and conform to one set of dimensions.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a general purpose apparatus for rolling over or orientating articles of varying geometry.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an apparatus for positioning large, heavy workpieces without hoisting loads.
A yet further object of this invention is to provide an apparatus for freely supporting and imparting controlled rotation to a workpiece.
Yet another object of this invention is to provide a simple means of securing ferromagnetic articles on a rollover or orientation apparatus.